THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008
Show The Artist In You: Six Easy Steps
Want to a make a cartoon? Blend magazine, published by the Secondary Education Services office at Ball State University partnered with National Scholastic Press Association, features a story in the Winter 2008 issue. Evan Mannweiler, a junior at Indiana University who wrote the story, tells you how to make a cartoon from start to finish.Mannweiler writes:
Cartoons are kind of like dates. Everybody likes them, nobody knows a formula for making a good one every time, and the best ones you don't want your parents to see. While there aren't any secrets to making a good carton, there are some tricks I discovered during my years as Cartoonist-in-Chief that will help make your cartoons better.
1. Use pencil to sketch
Pencils are very good tools. They can achieve truly beautiful tonal ranges, including wonderfully subtle grays, none of which reproduce very well on gray newsprint. Get your ide
as out then get your eraser out.
2. Use pen to finish.
Consider this a continuation of #1. Pens look more professional, more finished and simply reproduce better than pencil.
3. Computers color really well.
Because you're going to be laying your paper out digitally, consider using Photoshop to color your cartoons. Scan your ink drawing, set the blend mode to Multiply, create a new layer underneath it and color away. Quick, easy, and again, it reproduces well. Catching the trend? Be like a rabbit. Reproduce well.
4. Get rid of Paper Tone
One of the biggest (and sloppiest) (and ugliest) mistakes that most high school cartoonists make is not removing paper tone. Let's make this the most important step. After you scan your cartoon, open it in Photoshop, click on Levels and select the little eyedropper that is white. Click on your white paper. Thank me later.
5. Put a box around it.
This will help your composition, it will give you an idea of the space you have to fill on the page (make sure you know that before you start drawing) - plus everything looks better with a box around it.
6. Get the person with the best ideas to do your cartoons.
Good writing always trumps good art. Besides, you can always get someone from your school's art department to draw a cartoon of a good idea.
Posted at 9:09:41 AM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A141752
TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008
Tips for Better Stories About Race and Ethnicity
Blend Magazine,
produced by National Scholastic Press Association and Ball State University, features in the Winter 2008 issue 10 tips for stories about race and ethnicity written by Poynter's Keith Woods, Dean of Faculty.
Woods writes:
1. Make sure the story offers voice, context, and complexity. Include the fullest range of voices and opinions as possible when writing stories about race/ethnicity. Remember that context explains facts. Expect every story to have a layer of complexity. Pursue it.
2. Avoid turning people into primary colors by using race as a noun. "A black." "Many whites." By reducing a person to a color, you dehumanize. Use black/white as adjectives. Add a humanizing noun: black man; white student.
3. Pursue precision. Avoid euphemisms and coded language. "Inner city" is not a synonym for "black" or "brown" or "poor." It's a geographic reference. "NASCAR dad" is a poor substitute for "working-class white man." Watch for the other euphemisms and codes: Mainstream (white), exotic (Asian), local (Native Hawaiian).
4. Use the active voice when talking about events in which race/ethnicity is a factor. Things don't happen. People do things to other people. Consider the difference. "She hurt him." [active] "He was hurt." [passive] The former places the action where it belongs. The latter leaves out the person responsible for the action.
5. Be thoughtful about using slurs. If a slur is the reason there's a story, it probably should be spelled out. Avoid euphemisms whenever possible. For example, if someone said the word "nigger" and it's crucial to the understanding of the story, don't use "the n-word" or "n----." The more powerful the person uttering the word or the more profound the context for its use, the stronger the case for spelling it out ("The teens called him a 'spic' just before striking the fatal blow.")
6. Minority is not a synonym for black, brown, Asian or Native American. It's a numerical reference. A person is minority only in relation to a majority. To use "minority" as a synonym for "Asian" or other ethnic groups is to perpetually speak of those groups in relation to white people. Be specific: "Racial and ethnic minorities" when speaking of all people of color. Black, Latino, Vietnamese, Cherokee, etc., when speaking of individuals.
7. "Alien" alienates. "Illegals" dehumanizes. When referencing people in the country illegally, remember you're talking about people. Consider the person's status before choosing the language. One way to think about this:
a. "Undocumented immigrant" presumes legal entry but lapsed or incomplete documentation. A student or worker who came to the country legally but overstayed a visa is undocumented.
b. "Illegal immigrant" presumes a person unintentionally violated U.S. border laws by coming into the country without documentation.
c. "Illegal alien" presumes a visit from E.T.
8. Be careful when conflating. Illegal immigrants come from many countries. If you mean those coming from Mexico and the rest of Latin America, say so. Avoid using "immigration" as a synonym for "illegal immigration." Don't switch between "Hispanics" and "immigrants," lest you intend to suggest that all Hispanics are immigrants.
9. Use race/ethnicity when it's needed. Explain why it's relevant. Put it where it belongs.
10. Use descriptions that truly describe. Skin color and hue; features and textures. Race/ethnicity adds no true, reliable information to any physical description.
Posted at 10:33:25 AM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A141731
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008
Two journalism sites you should know
Looking for a book or movie about journalism and want to read a review? Looking for a journalism school?
HighSchoolJournalism.org has info you need.
You'll find books about journalism, textbooks, journalism-related movies and DVDs about journalism. You can see lists of high school newspapers all over the country, journalism jargon and which professional papers have youth sections.
Another site,
SchoolTube, features work from high school publications and sends a newsletter with contests. And if you want a free video to add to your site, SchoolTube
offers videos you can download.
Posted at 2:21:54 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A140498
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008
Watch and learn: award-winning multimedia
The
National Press Photographers Association has announced winners of its annual awards.
Take a look at winning videos, photographs and multimedia packages. Poynter's Steve Myers wrote a column about the judging done at Poynter in the Web category, and what the judges had to say about what works and what doesn't in multimedia.
The judges:
- Ellyn Angelotti, an adjunct faculty member and interactivity editor for Poynter
- Michelle Maltais, a deputy editor of business and technology for LATimes.com
- Irwin Thompson, the deputy director of photography for The Dallas Morning News
- Seth M. Gitner, a multimedia journalist for Roanoke.com and The Roanoke Times
- Thea Breite, multimedia photography editor for The Boston Globe
Here's some advice from Myers' column:
Audio makes the difference.
"Other than storytelling -- and let's assume good photography -- the
audio, that's what puts one person above everyone else," Breite said.
That means well-placed, meaningful natural sound, as well as effective
voiceovers. Angelotti said the best voiceovers were those done by the
subjects, which enabled them to tell their stories directly.
Here's a presentation with great natural sound...
Don't sacrifice ease of use for something that looks cool.
Judges said too many multimedia presentations are hard to figure out.
Consider the downside of breaking conventions, such as a back button in
the upper left corner. And whatever navigation system you choose, keep
it consistent. (As Gitner put it, don't keep moving the car door
handles.)
The best interfaces preview the content and show users how to navigate through it, Jenkins said. The navigation on "
Soul of Athens" was one of the reasons it was named "Best Multimedia Package" -- its design made it easy to find great content...
Don't pack too much in. When
the judges reviewed some entries, one would cry out, "Too much!" Don't
overload the user. Pick out the best stuff and use it to tell the
story. Don't feel compelled to use a lot of material to justify a
project. And keep in mind that the user interface can easily become
confusing when there is a lot of content.
Some of my favorites were about
a mother's challenge to help take care of her 11-year-old, who has autism and "wants to die,"
an eye-opening video about wildlife trade,
a teenage girl who grew up in an area with limited opportunities, and an inspiring story about
a high school principal who is trying to change a school dealing with violence.
Posted at 1:22:48 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A139067
MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2008
Three words focus your story
Remember these three words when writing your next story.
Who did what? Sue Burzynski Bullard writes a blog on J-talk with writing tips from Al Tompkins. You can also watch a video in the blog where Tompkins talks about how to focus a story.
Bullard writes:Figuring out how to focus a story after you've done the reporting is tough. I often tell reporters they should keep a post-it note on their computers with the words, "Why should I care?" on it. Reporters need to remember that's the question readers will want answered as they decide whether or not to spend time with a story. Writing coach
Chip Scanlan, of the Poynter Institute, suggests reporters ask three questions: What's the news, what's the story and so what?
Don Gibb, a former reporter and editor at the London Times, suggests outlining. He also recommends thinking of your story in chunks - that's especially important online. And Al Tompkins, Poynter's broadcast and online leader, says tell your story in these three words - who did what - to find the focus. Whether you are telling a story in print, online, or for broadcast, that advice works. Try it and let me know if it helps.
Posted at 9:28:15 AM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A140507
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
Digital or online tools worth learning
Grownups will say that technology is a teen's native language,
something you've known and absorbed since birth. In case you're behind
in some of the dialects or syntax, here's a quick primer in key
software that could help you as a journalist.
What programs do you really need to know? Laura Ruel, assistant
professor for visual communication and multimedia at the prestigious
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, writes about a consensus of
expert opinion in a story on Poynter Online, Teaching Tomorrow's
Journalists: Today's Best Tools:
All agreed that knowledge of software skills will never replace the
need to emphasize to students the importance of being critical, curious
and analytical thinkers. Yet there also was strong sentiment that
software is an essential component to journalism education."Because that's the thing," Gahran said. "Journalism i
s a practice, not just a philosophy. The tools really do matter."
Key
to knowing what software to teach or learn is knowing your educational
goals -- and what kind of jobs you're targeting. Collectors of
information will need to know different software than those editing and
presenting it.
Here are the Tidbits team's thoughts on four
types of software that may seem similar to an outsider, but do quite
different things.
See this story's sidebar for insight into what hiring professionals are looking for. (And
look here for more discussion among educators about what works and needs work at their schools.)
To read what Ruel had to say about each package, read the Poynter Online story
here.
Posted at 2:39:34 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A138947
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008
School papers using Facebook
Networking sites like
Facebook and
Myspace provide an outlet for individuals to voice their opinions not only for fun but in times of tragedy. These sites serve as a forum for those looking for answers. In times of school shootings, like at
Virginia Tech and recently at
Northern Illinois University, students turned to Facebook to connect with classmates.
High school newspapers have their say, too. Publications are using these sites as a publishing tool.
Five editors at North Central High School in Indianapolis
posted content on Facebook allowing students to view upcoming issues and extra content like photos that were not in printed issues. Students can also engage in surveys and post feedback.
The Paly Voice from Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, Cal,
used Facebook to report the news of an earthquake in their area. The editor, Michael Bloch,
contacted students through the site for interviews. The staff was actually one of the first to report the story which appeared on Google News.
We're interested about what your staff is doing. Let us know what unique ways you're using networking sites or other means of communication for reporting stories.
Posted at 2:41:28 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A138197
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008
Take audio from cell phone to web
Looking for ways to create Web content? Ryan Sholin, a Mass Communications graduate from San Jose State University,
shares five web services that will easily help you create Web content. The best part? It's free. One of the services,
YouTube, you're probably familiar with.
This one was my favorite:
Twittergram, a program that allows you to record audio on a cellphone and upload to the Web. Use this to incorporate audio with articles. If a school band won a competition, record the group's music and post it with the story online. Or record breaking news or interviews.
Check out the other three:
Ning, Vuvox and
Mogulus. Let us know how you use these programs and share any tips you have.
Sholin's Web site was brought to our attention by Logan Aimone, executive director of NSPA, through the JEA's listserv.
Posted at 10:31:33 AM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A136520
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008
Free course teaches typography basics
Your story's
visual appeal will affect whether people read it. Poynter's Sara Quinn, Visual Journalism faculty member, wrote the
NewsU course
Typography For News Design, which teaches the basics of typography, its importance and history.
From a list of more than 50 words, you learn typography vocabulary. Some you might know like byline, column inch or banner head. Here are a few you might not be familiar with:
Agate - small type used for sports stats, etc.
Base Alignment - base of text should align in adjacent columns
Gutter or Alley - the horizontal space between two or more columns of body copy
Kerning - adjusting or tightening the space between individual letters in a headline or in display text so that they appear evenly spaced and visually correct
Tombstoning - two headlines side-by-side that run into each other, making it difficult to read.
You also learn the seven principles for creating typographic contrast including contrast of size, color, grouping and weight.
This course is effective through the use of many examples and visuals. Once you've completed the course, apply what you've learned to pages in your publication.
Posted at 6:11:38 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A136541
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008
Is your school on EveryBlock?
If your school is in New York City, Chicago or San Francisco, check this out.
EveryBlock is a new Website that lets you search for news, road closings, restaurant inspections and loads of other information by ZiP code, neighborhood, even by block on a city street.
Read more in today's Al's Morning Meeting column, including an interview with site founder Adrian Holovaty.
The site crawls the internet for information on those three major cities, so if your school is there, start looking for ways to use it. Look for restaurant inspections on places your students go for lunch or dinner or lattes. Find crime reports for the neighborhood around your school. Look for story ideas for your newspaper or yearbook or links of useful real-time information for your Website.
The site launched today. I looked up University High near the University of Chicago, Wayne Brasler's school, and found links to a variety of crimes (assault, battery, petty theft) and a review of a nearby restaurant, the University of Chicago Pub. Could there be stories there? Sure -- what if the theft occurred at school, but the student newspaper didn't know? This one didn't occur at the high school, but the site would alert you if an incident was reported at school. What if the assault occurred at a popular student hangout? Could be a story.
Look it over, and if you have ideas on how schools could use EveryBlock, register as a user of Poynter Online so you can post feedback here. Or
email your thoughts to me. What a great opportunity for intensely local reporting on our school communities.
-- Wendy Wallace
Posted at 5:35:48 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A136328
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2008
Ever get in trouble? Colleges are asking
This story will catch the attention of those who plan to attend college but have had run-ins, even minor ones, with the law. In Al's Morning Meeting, Poynter's Al Tompkins writes about how violence on campus is prompting colleges to look for criminal activity in an applicant's background. If you can't find students who will talk to you about their skirmishes with police, perhaps a recent graduate can put the issue in perspective for you.Here's an exercept from Tompkins' column:
High school seniors nationwide are in full-throttle college application mode right now.
The Los Angeles Times says
high school seniors who have had legal troubles, even minor run-ins,
have plenty to worry about when applying for college this year.
Colleges, increasingly, are probing deeper into a student's legal past
as an indicator of how the student might act in college. The paper says
the shootings at Virginia Tech are one reason schools are more vigilant
this year.
The Times reports:
Last
year, [the Common Application] began asking students -- and their
counselors -- about any suspensions, dismissals or probationary terms
because of academic or behavioral misconduct and whether students had
been "convicted of a misdemeanor, felony or other crime." The
applicants are encouraged to explain the incidents. College admissions
counselors realize that "not every 17-year-old is a perfect human
being," said Seth Allen, president-elect of the
Common Application,
the nonprofit organization that administers the form. But a campus
should know about infractions -- even juvenile records that may have
been expunged -- so it can decide whether students should "be part of
our community," he said.
In the past, less than about half of
Common Application members asked similar questions on separate
applications, estimated Allen, who is also dean of admission and
financial aid at Grinnell College in Iowa. Schools wanted the questions
added to the shared application because, in general, institutions "are
being held to a greater standard of accountability," he said.
A
tiny amount of applicants confessed. Of the 266,087 students who used
the Common Application last year, only 2.32% said they received school
discipline, and only about 0.25% reported a conviction.
Posted at 12:19:12 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A134726
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2007
Involve your readers in debate coverage
Next time you cover a debate, whether for the presidential election or a school race, consider a Q&A that involves your readers. Here's how the
St. Petersburg Times involved students in Poynter's High School Journalism Program and reported their views on the CNN/YouTube Republican debate.
Five students volunteered to participate and received five questions, serious and humorous, to think about while watching the Nov. 28 debate. The teens wrote their responses, which were published
Dec. 3 in a
story on the debate from a teen's perspective.
Teens were asked:
"Who do you think appealed most to teens in the debate and why?"
"Which YouTube video question was the best?"
"Whom would you vote for, based solely on what you heard tonight, and why?"
"What did you learn from this debate that you had never heard or realized before?"
"You're the editor of the yearbook and need to write a superlative for
at least one of the candidates. What superlative would you give and to whom, based
solely on tonight's debate?"
Publish students' responses to your own questions in your paper or on your Web site.
Posted at 1:52:30 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A133733
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2007
Twitter your school's breaking news
Steve Outing, who contributes to the
E-media Tidbits column for Poynter Online, says
the breaking-news blog is about to be supplanted (or
supplemented) by the Twitter breaking-news feed.
Think of an event that you want to cover as it happens -- something big that's of interest to many in your school community. A big game? A crime or major accident involving someone from school?
Here's what Outing says to do:
As you send your
reporters out to cover the story, get them to post short bits of news
(limited to 140 characters) to a
Twitter
feed that either you've set up for this story, or that you keep ready
for significant breaking news. With reporters filing short bits from
their cell phones, you'll be able to offer your audience new
information even faster than you could with a breaking-news blog.
"Rescue crews just pulled a body out from under the 12th Street
Bridge." "Police are chasing an apparent suspect on foot near the
downtown library."
Feed this to your site and to subscribed cell phone alerts. Urge
your readers to "follow" your breaking-news Twitter stream from their
own Twitter accounts.
Practice on a non-emergency story. Pinpoint something your school community is passionate about. Tell your school that you'll be covering that story live, as it happens, and how to be a part of it. Send three or five or 10 reporters to cover that something, and have them file their dispatches via Twitter.
Talk about ramping up the timeliness of a monthly student newspaper, eh?
Posted at 10:32:56 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A133487
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2007
Invest an hour in multimedia storytelling
Want to tell a story using multimedia? A free NewsU course called "Five steps to multimedia storytelling" provides the basic steps. It flows well, offers lots of examples and is well worth an hour of your time.
1. Choose a StoryThe best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), strong quotes for video or audio, and/or powerful emotions for still photos and audio. They use the strengths of each medium to tell the story in a way that draws in readers. Multimedia stories also are nonlinear. You engage readers by letting them choose which elements to read and when to read them.
2. Make a StoryboardDefine the elements. This includes focus of the story, profiles of main characters, the main event and background of the situation.
Identify the media. Decide which pieces of the story work best in each medium (video, audio, text, animated graphics, maps, or photography).
Storyboard the concept. On a sheet of paper sketch out the main story page and elements it will include.
3. Reporting with Multimedia -- make sure you have the equipment you need.
4. Editing for the Web -- be sure to follow guidelines for using different media. Here are a few:
Video. Keep videos short (1 or 2 minutes). Keep talking heads to a few seconds.
Audio. Use only high quality. Use subtitles with the audio if there are no other options or to reinforce the point.
Still photos. Can be used individually, to set a mood or introduce a story or section of a story sequentially, or to tell a story with a "slide show."
Graphics. Can be the centerpiece of a story. Make then interactive or animated.
Text. Use for display type, headlines, photo captions.
5. Producing the StoryJust as a print reporter organizes a story, a multimedia reporter will shape a story. But you'll use different tools to decide the elements of the story, the media to tell the story and the story's flow.
Look at this multimedia example, "Being a Black Man," from The Washington Post.
Posted at 1:25:29 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A132083
Tips for 'alts'
Designhawg.com gives tips on how to create an alternate story form, or "alt," whether it's a Q&A, bio or fact box, timeline, chartical or by-the-numbers box.
- Harvest your ideas. Coming up with great ideas on the fly is an incredibly hard task to do on-demand. You have good ideas all the time, so start writing them down, start sketching them out.
- Think reader. Anytime a content idea comes along, immediately make informing the reader quicker and with greater clarity your primary objective. How fast can you ensure that the reader will "get it"? Next on the list, give it attitude.
- Get involved now. Just because you've been inundated with a ton of daily work doesn't excuse you from getting involved with long-term projects. Staff meetings, brainstorming sessions, e-mail, individual conversations...all great ways to help drive ideas further and make great ideas happen.
- Stop, collaborate and listen. Now that you're in the loop, make sure that you and the team (which can be one or 100 people) are pushing the idea. Don't let their title of section editor keep you from considering their design ideas and don't let your title keep you from making content suggestions. This is a great time to start picking directions for the presentation.
- Sketch and sell. The best friend of your time will be your ability to rough out ideas on a piece of paper to quickly share with peers. Remember, when in doubt, show them.
- Create and Recreate. Never settle for your first solution. Most of the time you will get close to the optimum solution on your first try, but you almost always will need to adjust something in the content or the delivery of the content to tell the story properly.
- Finish. If you start a project, see it through unless you're ordered to hand it off. If you are planning to hand a project off, get them involved at step 3. Otherwise, you're just becoming part of the problem.
- Don't get discouraged. Not every project that you work on will make it through completion. But the time spent on a project is never completely lost as you have been building bridges to your peers and forging lasting bonds that will help in future projects.
Posted at 1:11:16 PM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A132017
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007
Homeless find rest in church pews
|
This video features a Catholic church who allows the homeless to sleep in the pews during mass. |
Here's a video you can learn video or online storytelling from. The piece features a church who allows the homeless to sleep in the pews during mass. Al Tompkins writes about it in his column:
The piece was done by photojournalist Jeremy Carroll and reporter Noelle Walker, who both work at KNTV NBC 11 in San Jose, Calif. Pay special attention to the great use of natural sound in this piece and to Jeremy's amazing use of natural light. His creative camera angles take your eyes where they normally do not go.
Tompkins interviewed Walker about the project, which won a national Edward R. Murrow award:
Q. How did you find this story?
A. This was the initiative of the photographer, Jeremy. He saw it in The San Francisco Chronicle, and approached me with the idea. The article was compelling, but we thought it was a story that was made for audio and video.
Q. How do you collaborate on adding words to the pictures? What were your discussions like during the scripting process?
A. We talked about some of the iconic imagery we wanted to juxtapose against the gritty tenderloin. Jeremy gave me some incredible pictures to work with that seemed to beg for a little breathing room. There were times I would run line options by Jeremy. For the most part, I write with a "soundtrack" in my head. Sounds a bit nutty, but I hear the pacing of the reporter track, nat sound and sound bites in my head before I put them in the script. The advantage of working with someone who is on the same page and approaches a story similarly is that I don't have to do a lot of interpreting!
Q. The sounds in this piece really make it special, especially the sound of snoring. Give us a lesson in how important sound is to a video story. What makes for great sound?
A. The sound makes the story. The less of me, the better! We've been asked if the snoring was real, which it was, of course! But not all snoring sounds the same. I took the wireless mic and walked through the pews listening for different, interesting snores. Same with the steam coming out of the manhole. I played "chicken" with oncoming traffic after midnight one night to get the wireless close to the source, while Jeremy watched my back and the traffic from the sidewalk!
Q. This piece includes music that you added during the editing process. Lots of journalists oppose adding music to video pieces. How did you think through that issue?
A. The music helped set a tone and, maybe more importantly, helped weave the piece through the passing time. I don't think music sound should be a "bed" for a piece, but I do think that when used in the right circumstances, it can add to a piece.
Posted at 11:57:16 AM
E-mail this item |
Add Your Comments |
QuickLink this item: A132002
Poynter High - Reporting, Writing & Editing Archive
Or, go back 10 items per page: MORE >
|
Back to Top
